For as long as I can remember, I have had a simple wish, probably shared by many. Call it the longing to have no one, for any purpose, stroll up to my car window to attempt to transact business of any kind while I am driving.

No panhandlers. No people in weird nurse uniforms with buckets collecting money for who knows what. Not even my heroes, the firefighters, and that boot campaign for muscular dystrophy.

Now in the case of firefighters and other first responders, I will pull off the road and make a donation. However, there has always been something wildly discordant about people who respond to accidents doing something that can cause them.

Set aside the motives of all those people who want my attention, my money or my time. It is distracting and hazardous for pedestrians to try to interact in any manner with motorists in moving traffic. That includes at stoplights. You may be stopped for a few seconds, but when that light changes, the rodeo is on, and everyone is going to start moving — or should.

That’s hard if you are digging for spare change for a cause you wholly support.

That brings me to my friends at Open Carry Tarrant County, a subset of my friends at Open Carry Texas. I say friends not in the sense that we are hanging out for lunch every day, but as a synonym for gun-rights allies.

People who are freaked out by guns think the Open Carry guys are scary monsters who pose a threat to the public. This is nonsense. I’m not sure how many new adherents are won over by their practice of toting long rifles all over the place, but they have the right to do it and they are on the right side of the Constitution.

But the day they decided to start handing literature to motorists in busy intersections, they lost me on the narrow point of that tactic. I still support their agenda and their right to be as demonstrative as they please in public spaces — as long as it’s not on roads.

Enter a muddled federal judge who has ruled against Arlington’s thoroughly reasonable law to leave people alone in traffic.

The judge calls sidewalks — and streets! — traditional areas for the exchange of ideas. But when one person is on a sidewalk engaging the attention of another person driving a car, that is different. And it is dangerous, no matter the nobility of the cause. There is no proud history of meaningful dialogue between drivers and people on foot.

I am a free-speech warrior. The credentials for that require a clear understanding of the few environments not intended to be interaction zones. Public roadways already filled with half-attentive drivers rank high on that list.

The guns carried by the Open Carry brigades will harm no one. Their intersection encounters very well might. I wish them success in their agenda and the wisdom to pursue other methods. Judges should leave intact laws that protect motorists from overtures that divert them from diligent operation of their vehicles.

My wish list now includes success for my Open Carry compadres — but with tactics that don’t involve danger to their own ranks or those they seek to win over.

The Mark Davis Show airs from 7 to 10 a.m. weekdays on KSKY (660 AM). He can be reached at markdavisshow@gmail.com.

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